


127 + 76: Trick to the Game

by clickclickBANG



Series: Strength in Numbers: a collection of SEP stories [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bad Jokes, Bad Puns, Blow Jobs, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Sex, Smut, Swearing, although now half of them don't apply, i don't remember all the tags from last time, i'm never gonna be sorry for that bad puns, lots of swearing, two idiots being dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 20:48:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9785636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickclickBANG/pseuds/clickclickBANG
Summary: Gabriel feels a little awkward.Jack hits upon an out-of-the-box solution.Terrible jokes and bad humor and "more fun" abound!---------Follow-up to "76 +127: How We Were Made"





	1. 127 + 76: The Duckening

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starsherit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsherit/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who only follow me on AO3: http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/157175068845/127-76-an-apology-and-an-explanation
> 
> I have attempted to make whatever small steps I can to correct this, but I ask everyone to be patient with me. Learning and improving is a slow, complicated process, one where we may not always see tangible results. My aim is that I will take this as a learning experience, to improve as both a writer and a person, but please keep in mind that this may not be immediately apparent in my writing. 
> 
> Some of my readers will disagree with this - I know because many have already told me that they thought I wrote the original first chapter well. Some people will still say that my reflection and the removal of the first chapter is not enough, but as I said, the effort to learn and improve will often come in small, often intangible steps. If it means anything, this is the last time I will attempt anything of that nature in fic-writing.
> 
> \---
> 
> Song is "On My Mind" by Sam Sparro ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2BQDF_wtiI )
> 
> \---
> 
> HANJI
> 
> HANJI WHAT THE FUCK
> 
> https://twitter.com/SiIent_Dreams/status/833154875827552258/photo/1
> 
> HANJI WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS SO GOOD HOLY SHIT, THE COLORS, HOLY SHIT. THE ATMOSPHERE. THE MOOD. THEY'RE SO SOFT TOGETHER. I LOVE IT.
> 
> I'M DEAD. SOMEONE COME BURY ME.

_Dirt becomes the rows,_

_But not every little thing that’s planted grows._

_But you never know -_

_So I try to go the way it flows._

 

_And I could lament all the ways it went,_

_But that would not be time well-spent._

_So I’ll spend my time with you on my mind -_

_You’re the one that I’ve been tryna find._

 

\---------

 

**76: Ready Player 1**

August 8, 2045: 1432 - In the dorm hall of the SEP Facility, Boise National Forest, Idaho

 

Jack waits breathlessly for the screen on the dull, concrete wall to -

It lights up, as does the small touchscreen of the gamepad in his hands.

He lets out a huge whoop, springing to his feet and chucking the gamepad at his bed before he bolts to the door.  He smacks the lock press and darts out the second the door slides open far enough to permit him to wedge his body through the crack and suddenly he’s out in the hallway, sprinting as fast as he can as his sock-clad feet skid and slip on the tile.

“JESUS -” Wes, No. 82, shouts as Jack bolts past him and Geni, No. 96, jumps out of his way, yelling, “WHAT THE FUCK, JACK.”  The other 76-100s milling about in the hallway echo their sentiments as they all jump, jolt, skitter, and flinch out of their “number leader’s” way as he tears down the hall and -

“DAMMIT, JACK,” Adrien screams at him as Jack blurs past him, “AT LEAST WEAR YOUR FUCKING SHOES.”  But Jack -

Jack has no patience for _shoes_ right now.

Jack has no patience for _anything_ right now.

It’s been three days since they busted out of their prison cells - three days since Jack finally got some damn decent sleep, and three days since he also finally got some _damn good_ sex too, holy shit, he _still_ feels it and it feels _great_ , working aches and deep pressures into his muscles, soft scratches into his skin, carpet burns into his knees, and soft slivers of Gabriel into his heart.  Jack would’ve spent the last seventy-two hours doing exactly the same thing, or hell, even just lying on Gabriel’s chest for three days, had either of those options been feasible.

Which, considering they were in a supersoldier enhancement program, neither of those were.

Shockingly, neither Carlos nor Adrien wanted to let them be alone in either dorm room for too long (“I’m not getting fucking locked out again,” Carlos had snapped to which Jack had retorted, “Don’t you mean ‘socked out?’” And that had caused Carlos to say, “You didn’t even put a fucking sock on the door - you don’t get to make that joke.”) lest they risk walking back in on something they didn’t want to see.  And while there were...other places people went to make out or fuck around (literally), Jack and Gabriel hadn’t had a chance to try them because at 1700 hours on August 5, when the “freed” escapees and remaining guards had settled in for dinner, the general had come down to remind them:

“We may not have cameras set in the fucking shower stalls,” she had stated to them coldly, “But we DO have them outside the stalls for your safety and security.  And we would like to remind you that we DO watch them.  And we would also like to remind you to CLOSE YOUR FUCKING CURTAINS ALL THE WAY.”

The group had buzzed with soft whispers and low levels of shame and guilt when she had snapped her bullethell glare at the different tables, growling, “If I see anymore couples, threesomes, or FOURSOMES enter a single stall again, I’m putting ALL OF YOU back in those cells.”   A group of 26-50’s - four of them, to be exact - looked extra embarrassed at this remark and Gabriel had snorted next to Jack, “Serves those assholes fucking right for being so goddamn loud when they did it.”    

The general had given them all one last vicious, stern look before reminding them, “And _shut your fucking curtains_.”  And then she had turned on her heel and left the group of properly shamed young adults to eat their sad meal with embarrassment.

And so, as much as either of them had wanted to do more, they had decided it was _probably wise_ not to push their luck outside of the dorm rooms.

But more than that, Jack was content to just be free from that damn prison cell and to sit with Gabriel and lean on him and touch and tease him playfully and Gabriel -

It was apparent this was all still very new to him.

Gabriel wouldn’t blush, not exactly, but his usual sharp wit and relentless humor seemed to clam up at times over the last few days, whenever Jack would get close, whenever Jack would touch him (not even affectionately - sometimes Jack would just hand him his water bottle after training or sparring in the gym and Gabriel would go rather stiff and awkward), whenever Jack would smile.  And Jack -

Had he done something wrong?

Had he said the wrong thing during sex?

Sure, he’d teased Gabriel a little...okay, maybe a lot, maybe _relentlessly_ before, during, and after, but Gabriel had seemed...receptive to it all?  Even encouraging?  Jack had known from the day they met that Gabriel often struggled to convey his emotions or words properly, but Jack had thought - Jack had felt -

That there hadn’t been the faintest touch of hesitancy between them.

That they were past that stage, both in friendship and in life in general.

And when he’d asked Gabriel, Gabriel had scowled so deep, so fiercely, muttered, “No, not at all.  You...you’re great, Jack.  It was… fuck, why are we talking about this now?  Now show me a real left hook, not that Kermit-the-Frog muppet flailing you call a punch.”  And then - after the faintest touch of hesitancy - Jack had wound up a real punch and smashed his fist into the punching bag Gabriel was holding for him.

Jack had spent the last seventy-two hours trying to figure it the fuck out.

He’s think he’s finally - _finally_ \- hit upon a solution.

A stupid, ridiculously, _outside of the box solution_.

He’d thought of it when the directors had given the 76-100 group the morning off to leave for town, although Idaho City was less a “town” and more a handful of buildings with concrete between them, the paint fading on everything.  About once or twice a month, the different twenty-five numbered groups were allowed to hop on a repurposed prison bus (they could paint a prison bus a different color, but the bars on the windows were a deadass giveaway) and driven into town, where they were allowed to spend their monthly allotment of $100 on _anything_ they wanted.

Too bad Idaho City, Idaho was basically a post office, a library, two restaurants, a pub, and a bunch of dilapidated houses.

Most of the SEP candidates chose to spend their monthly allotments on “real food” at one of the two restaurants, alcohol of their (limited) choice at the pub, or...something else?  There were a few grocery stores in “town,” so some of the smarter SEP candidates would spend their money there on snacks to bring back to the facility, but those snacks tended to be consumed hours - not days - later due to their out-of-whack metabolisms.

But Jack -

In what he considers a true moment of genius -

Had spent his money this month at the trading post.

The poor teenager stuck doing the shitty cashiering job had given him the deadest look when Jack had bought it.

When they had gotten back on the prison bus, Adrien had given him the _weirdest_ , shadiest look when he’d seen what Jack had bought, telling him, “That shit _has_ to be broken.  It’s what - thirty years old?”

“That makes it vintage,” Jack had responded and Adrien had just snorted, rolling his eyes before he bit into his sandwich.

It had been a gamble, but Jack’s high stakes roll had played off.

Because it still _worked_.

Figuring out the mess of cables to connect it to a modern holo-television hybrid screen had been _painful_ , and it had taken Jack nearly forty-five minutes just to get all the settings right, but once he had -

He’s pretty certain he’s got the solution to Gabriel’s boredom.

And maybe -

A solution to that hesitancy, if he... _plays_ his cards right.

[ _On my mind, on my mind_

_On my mind, on my mind -_

_On my mind,_

_Yeah, you’ve been on my mind._ ]

Jack skitters around a corner and he barely manages to keep his feet on the floor (rather than his chin) as he bursts into the mess hall, half-asking, half-shouting, “GABRIEL?”

The few candidates hanging out in the mess hall look up at him with only mild surprise before rolling their eyes and going back to their business but from the far table, closest to the windows full of the scenery of the mountain forests, Louisa shouts back “GYM.”

“THANKS.”

“NO PROBLEM.”

And then Jack is back to full-sprinting out the other hallway to the other parts of the facility.  He rounds another corner as more candidates yell and shout and sigh as they leap out of his way, and he punches through the doors of the gym, half-asking, half-shouting, “GABRIEL?”

The candidates there - some lifting weights, some sparring on the wrestling mats, some doing stretches, some just helping others - look up at him with only mild frustration, but from the back of the gym, Carlos hollers at him, “SHOWERS.”

“THANKS.”

“YOU’RE WELCOME.”

And then Jack is taking off back down the hallway to the showers and _like something out of a terrible romcom_ , he practically smashes into the first two people exiting the room -

Gabriel and Jamie.

They’re both freshly steaming and chatting about something - probably boxing, considering Gabriel is making some light, weightless jabs in the air when, as if in slow motion, Jamie’s face contorts from skepticism to sudden awareness of Jack _hurtling_ at them to _sheer terror_ at the the fact that Jack is _hurtling_ towards them -

“OH HOLY SHIT -” Jamie half-shouts, half-warns as Gabriel turns - as if in slow motion - towards Jack and he flinches up, getting his hands ready to catch the seventy-sixth candidate, his face wide and open and _horrified_ and -

Nothing happens.

Jack skids to a stop.

The two 126-150-numbered candidates just stare at him with fucking _hilarious_ looks of gutless terror on their faces as Jack grins, “I can stick the landing on the long jump too.”

“Mother _fucker_ ,” Gabriel wheezes, clutching slightly at his chest, “Don’t fucking _scare me_ like that.”  Behind him, Jamie unfurls from his defensive position, growling, “The fuck’s got you all wound up, Rank Ten?”

Jack gives them the widest, smuggest smirk, asking:

“You ever been duck hunting, Gabi?”

Gabriel gives him the weirdest, shadiest look, before muttering, “...No, what the fuck?  What kinda duck problem you think we got in Los Angeles?”

Jamie scowls a little, before asking, “...Why would you need a duck problem to hunt ducks?”

Gabriel glances at him, squinting slightly, saying slowly, “...Why else do you hunt ducks?”

Jack’s smirk flags a little as his “out of the box” solution misses the hitbox of Gabriel’s head entirely.

“...Because it’s fun?” Jamie asks, “And also they taste good?”

“Dude, do you know the kinda shit they feed ducks?  Why would you ever wanna be the tertiary end of that food chain?” Gabriel retorts, as his voice rises in intensity to match Jamie’s increasingly half-confused, half-angry scowl.  Jamie snaps back, “ _WILD_ ducks, asshole, not them shitty city-pond ducks -”

“What other kinda ducks _ARE_ THERE, JAMIE?” Gabriel demands and Jamie begins gesturing wildly, shouting at him, “THERE’S MORE THAN ONE SPECIES OF DUCK, REYES -”

“THEY’RE CALLED ‘GEESE,’ MOTHERFUCKER -” Gabriel roars back and Jack -

Jack drags his fingers down his face, mumbling, “You’re killing my vibe, Gabriel,” which gets Gabriel to whip around to him, snapping, “NOW YOU KNOW HOW THE DUCKS FEEL!”

Jack gives him a deadpan look.

It takes him a second, but Gabriel finally processes the expression, and he slows his roll a little, muttering a low, “Sorry, I don’t know - sorry.  No, I haven’t been duck hunting.”

Jack continues to give him a deadpan look as Gabriel grows more and more confused, until -

Jack reaches out and takes one of his hands.

“ _Qué?_ ” Gabriel asks in shock as Jack sighs to Jamie, “I’m gonna take him now.”  Jamie nods to him stoically, saying, “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

“No worries.”

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Gabriel mutters as Jack starts to drag him down the hallways.  Jack just pats his arm affectionately, murmuring, “I know.  It’s obvious.  It’s alright.  I have something to show you.”

“...Does it involve ducks?” Gabriel asks suspiciously, and Jack flashes him a delightfully wicked smirk, causing Gabriel to groan, “ _Ay, pinche mierda_ , Jack - why do you always gotta save the crazy shit for me?”

“You know you love it,” Jack chuckles, leading him to the 76-100 hallway.  Gabriel scowls, but doesn’t say anything in response and for a brief moment, with the faint touch of hesitancy -

Jack thinks maybe this plan won’t work.

“How are we gonna shoot ducks indoors?” Gabriel mutters as they reach Jack’s room, and Jack smiles mischievously as he punches the lock code into the keypad, saying with a playful threat, “Oh, _you’ll see_.”

“What the fuck did I say about scaring me -” Gabriel begins as door slides open, Jack pulling and tugging him inside until Gabriel can finally see the screen glowing on Jack’s side of the room, with a small white video game console actually _hardwired_ to the tv’s only USB port because _what the fuck kinda video game system runs on wires these days_ -

“The fuck is that??” Gabriel asks as Jack bends down and grabs some sort of weird long white remote -

“It’s a Wii U!” Jack states happily and Gabriel just looks at him totally lost and rather distrustfully, before he sputters out, “The fuck is a Wee You?”

“It’s one of Nintendo’s worst-selling consoles ever,” Jack continues, pointing the remote to the infrared sensor bar that he’s taped to the wall because there’s no spot to put it on the holo-tv.  He flips to the main menu (the little plaza thing is empty because there’s no internet connection, and even if it were available, Nintendo’s had the servers down for decades now), and selects -

“ _Ay Dios mio_ ,” Gabriel swears as the words [DUCK HUNT] load up in bright, bold, electric blue letters.  The older candidate rubs at his forehead with his hands, mumbling, “I cannot _fucking believe_ you went through ALL THAT just for this joke.”

“YES,” Jack shouts, fist-pumping into the air, “The long con pays off!  I still got it.”

And then, after a pause of grumbling silence, Jack looks at him and asks, “...Do you really think that geese are ducks?”

Gabriel looks up and squints at him, saying dryly, “...Aren’t they?”

“...Dude.”

“...Can we just play the fucking game?” Gabriel groans and Jack laughs brightly, walking around him to place the Wiimote in his hand and wrap himself against Gabriel’s back.  Gabriel eyes him suspiciously as Jack beams at him, explaining, “It’s simple - it’s infrared, so you have to point towards the tv for the bar to read it.”  He wraps his right hand around Gabriel’s and -

Jack notices that the faintest touch of hesitancy is not there.

He smiles gently to himself.

 

[ _On my mind, on my mind_

_On my mind, on my mind -_

_On my mind,_

_Yeah, you’ve been on my mind._ ]

 

“Like this,” Jack says, guiding Gabriel’s hand around the screen as a little blue square target cursor moves with their hands.  Jack shifts his thumb over Gabriel’s to the A button and he - through Gabriel - selects [Game A - 1 Duck].  Gabriel snorts at the choice, saying haughtily, “I think I can handle more than a single duck, Jack.”

“Oh wow,” Jack teases back, murmuring slightly into the warm skin of Gabriel’s neck and he feels the older candidate flinch slightly at the touch.  Jack smiles against him, saying with affectionate smugness, “Can’t even tell the difference between a goose and duck and thinks he’s hot shit.”

“Oh, you’re fucking _on_ now,” Gabriel laughs back, and Jack feels the rumble and shake of the sound through his chest.  He can hear the smirk in Gabriel’s voice, “I’m gonna WRECK this high score and - where the fuck did you get this anyways?  Isn’t this shit like...thirty years old?”

“Yeah, I found it used at the trading store in town,” Jack explains as the screen slides to the colorful pixelated grass and the _hound from hell_ shows up, sniffing at the ground before he dives into the weeds.  Jack says gently, “It already had a bunch of games loaded on it - I’m pretty sure I saw Smash Brothers on here -”

“Oh shit, really?” Gabriel asks, the excitement rising in his voice and Jack -

He’s already feeling _great_ about this plan.

“I’m not good at the older ones, but I can play a mean - OH SHIT WAIT -” Gabriel shouts as the first duck pops up and begins flying sporadically around the screen - he starts moving their hands to follow after it and Jack laughs, “Careful, you only get three shots per duck!”

“Asshole, distracting me with Smash Bros shit -” Gabriel growls and Jack releases his hand, feeling rather pleased with himself as Gabriel fires off two “rounds” and the duck falls “dead”.  The little dog pops up with the duck in hand before dropping back into the grass.  Gabriel huffs, squaring up and firing off at the second duck with ease.  Jack slinks back to his bed, reaching for the gamepad as he explains, “My mom had a Wii U - she would let me and Peter play it all the time.  Peter never let me be the hunter.”

“Second brother syndrome,” Gabriel mutters lowly, but his eyes are glowing with soft happiness even as he fires off little clicks and ducks drop on the screen.  Gabriel smirks at him briefly, saying, “I feel it.  My half-brother was an asshole like that too.”

Jack’s fingers wrap around the shoulder of the gamepad, and he _grins_ , rising back to face the other candidate.

Gabriel literally has no idea what’s coming for him.

This is going to be _great_.

“Damn, Jack,” Gabriel taunts as yet another duck falls dead, popping a slight pose as he tilts his head towards the younger candidate with a huge smug grin on his face, “You thought this shit was supposed to impress me?  Look, I’m already seven ducks in.”

The eighth duck appears on the screen, flying right.

Gabriel flicks his wrist lazily to track it, lining the blue reticle up -

Jack taps left on the d-pad.

Gabriel’s “shot” misses as the duck jerks off to the left.  Gabriel frowns but doesn’t say anything, his eyes just narrowing in on the duck moving across the screen.  Jack tries to suppress his smirk as he positions himself next to Gabriel again, flicking his eyes to the screen.  Just as Gabriel lines the target up again -

Jack taps down.

The duck “ducks” Gabriel’s second shot.

“...The fuck,” Gabriel whispers with increasing confusion and frustration, repositioning his cursor as Jack taps right-up at the same time, and the duck flies up to the upper right corner at an angle.  Jack chuckles with a dark, low, liquid playfulness, “Because Peter never let me shoot, I have to learn the trick to Duck Hunt.  You wanna know the trick to Duck Hunt, Gabi?”

“There’s a fucking trick to this?” Gabriel growls as he clicks the A button -

And the duck swerves up to the left again as the shot “whizzes” by.

The words [FLY AWAY!] appear on the screen as the duck escapes off to the top.

Gabriel scowls at Jack.

Jack smirks at Gabriel.

“The hunter is _not_ Player 1, Gabi,” Jack explains as the ninth duck appears on the screen.  Gabriel flicks his gaze back to the tv, once again putting the reticle over the duck and -

POP!  
His shot misses as the duck swerves off to the lower right.

Only this time -

Gabriel’s eyes dart down to Jack’s thumb on the d-pad...and with slow realization, he tilts his gaze back up to Jack’s viciously smug smile.

Gabriel gives him his own smile, wide and bright and radiant like the sun, laughing, “You little _shit_.”

“The _duck_ is Player 1,” Jack laughs as the time runs out on Duck Nine, and Jack’s little bird flies off.

“Now you only have one chance left, _pendejo_ ,” Jack smirks at him as Duck Ten pops up and Gabriel -

Gabriel flashes a wild, dangerous grin, firing off three shots randomly.  The jerkass of a dog rises from the grass, giving his strange, huffing laugh and the main menu pops back up.  Jack scowls - _that was fast_ \- until Gabriel reselects [Game A] and the opening animation plays.  The older candidate chuckles darkly at Jack, murmuring, “Now it’s a fucking _game_.”

“I appreciate that you want to play fair,” Jack chuckles as he starts controlling the first duck.  Gabriel’s eyes track its sporadic patterns, his hand shifting ever so slightly as he -

SNAP!

The first duck falls.

Jack scowls, and then beams broadly, turning his wickedly pleased smile at the older candidate.  Gabriel stares back at him with a smug, victorious expression, muttering, “You’re gonna need all the ducks you can get, Juan.”

Jack laughs, “I’m surprised you didn’t call them geese -”

“I am gonna fucking _destroy_ you,” Gabriel growls as he begins chasing the second duck around, Jack’s thumb tapping the d-pad wildly.  Jack cackles, “Fucking _try me_ , asshole.”

 

\---------

 

_I pour my cup of tea -_

_I spend so much time just thinkin’ ‘bout me,_

_But where I wanna be_

_Is outside of all my selfish ecstasy._

 

_Sometimes I get so bent,_

_I never am content,_

_I get so stuck in my torment, yeah_

_But you round me in,_

_You bring me back again -_

_You’re a lover and a friend._

 

\---------

 

**127: Ready Player 2**

August 8, 2045: 1436 - In the dorm hall of the SEP facility in Boise National Forest, Idaho

 

There’s a flurry of movement and intense clacking as Jack taps around the d-pad.  The duck on the screen dodges and weaves and sporadically changes direction, the blue reticle chasing after it as Gabriel smirks, his eyes flicking wildly after it.

POP!

He shoots and misses, causing Jack to giggle eagerly by him, “C’mon, Gabi, you can do better than that - don’t let me leave the screen.”

“God, sometimes you’re a real snide asshole, Morrison,” Gabriel growls, and Jack just laughs brightly, “At least I know the difference between ducks and geese, Reyes -”

“ _Ay Dios mio_ , I’m never gonna live this down -”

“Nope!”

“But remember, Jack - I know all about Spiderman and I will _not_ hesitate to use it to cut you down to size,” Gabriel chuckles which gets Jack to snap at him, “You _wouldn’t_ -”

It’s just enough of an opening for -

BANG!

The duck falls dead and Jack groans.  Gabriel gives him a smug, victorious smirk, and Jack glares at him, muttering, “That was just the second one, Gabi - I have so many more ducks.”

“That’s why I said that you’re gonna need all the ducks you can get,” Gabriel chuckles as they settle back into another round of chasing each other around the screen -

“...Sorry,” Jack says quietly after a moment of intense shooting and out-maneuvering and out-ducking each other and Gabriel -

He hears the faintest touch of hesitancy in Jack’s tone.

“Sorry,” he says again, still softly, quietly, hesitantly, “I know it’s not a good first date.  If I had...If I had been smarter, we could’ve had a real first date in New York, or on the Hudson...or maybe even in LA, huh?”

Gabriel stares at Jack.  Jack smiles at Gabriel.

That bittersweet, almost sad smile does something strange to Gabriel’s heart.

He’s no longer in denial.

He knows exactly what it is.

Gabriel looks at him for a bit longer as the duck flies off the screen and he says, strong and sweet and gentle and playful all at once:

“It’s great.”

The bittersweetness of Jack’s expression blooms into surprise as Gabriel -

He does not know how to be anyone’s support, not even his own.

But with Jack, he doesn’t need to know.

With Jack, he just is.

With Jack, he just is Gabriel.

 

[ _On my mind, on my mind_

_On my mind, on my mind -_

_On my mind,_

_Yeah, you’ve been on my mind._ ]

 

Gabriel smiles at Jack, strong and sweet and gentle and playful all at once, saying again, “ _Muchas gracias, cariño_.  It’s great.  It’s the best first date I’ve ever had.”

The look Jack gives him is brilliantly breathtaking: wide-eyed and awed and open and full of -

Jack suddenly laughs, his voice is as wide and as bright as the ocean under the sun, “That means fuckall, Gabi - you’ve had _shitty_ first dates!”

“Hey, now,” Gabriel growls, but his tone is strong and sweet and gentle and playful all at once, “I’ve had some decent ones! And I’ve been to the Hudson in the fall on a first date.  Shit’s overrated.”

“Yeah?” Jack jokes, “At least you were outside.  Look at me, pretending we’re on a date stuck in this shitty program facility -”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gabriel wisecracks back, “It’s fucking _badass_ that you’ve taken me hunting on our first date.”

Jack laughs again, and the sound does something wonderful to Gabriel’s heart -

It feels _great_.

Completely forgetting the game, Gabriel wraps his right arm around Jack’s shoulders, pulling him into a playful headlock-hug combination as the sound of Jack’s laughter - like the roll of summer thunder, the beat of the waves - presses against Gabriel’s chest and he -

He places one warm kiss against Jack’s cheek.  Jack sighs happily before tilting his head just enough and -

Gabriel kisses his lips - strong and sweet and gentle and playful.

Jack kisses back, reflecting the strong sweetness, the gentle playfulness.

It lingers a moment too long.

The kiss melts from gentle warmth to something deeper, something firmer, pressing back with an increasingly urgent tenderness, a slightly rougher playfulness and Gabriel shudders slightly when Jack’s lips part just enough for the brush of his tongue -

“You’re gonna lose at this rate, Top Rank,” Jack murmurs against his lips, each word dripping a slow, dark, _tempting_ heat, challenging Gabriel to a different sort of game but Gabriel -

He brings his left hand up to his right and for a brief second, he has a full embrace around Jack, whose breath hitches slightly at the feeling -

Gabriel smirks.

He takes the Wiimote in left hand and in a flash, points it back to the screen -

POP!

The current duck falls dead.

“... _pinche pendejo,_ you fucking _asshole_ ,” Jack mutters, but his words are a mix of strong and soft, sweet and bitter, gentle and firm, playful and rough, and Gabriel beams at him smugly as Jack bites at his lower lip -

God, that expression on him gets Gabriel _going_.

He’s going to _devastate_ Jack.

He’s going to watch that confidence and cocksureness unravel.

He’s going to -

Oh.

Wait.

Gabriel wants to _feel_ that cocksureness inside him.

Gabriel wants to feel _great_.

Gabriel wants to feel _Jack._

It’s not like he’s never wanted this before - both the urge to feel the hard, furious confidence of a lover inside him, and the urge to specifically feel Jack’s surging, roiling power - the power that fuels Jack’s confidence and Gabriel’s fire, the power that gives Jack such brilliant, roguish charm and gives Gabriel the deep, endless desire to bask in it, the power that makes him want to fall to his knees and let Jack be -

Let Jack be himself with him

Just as Jack lets him be Gabriel.

So yeah, Gabriel’s been fucked before, and he enjoyed it too.  

But he’s never wanted it quite like this.

He’s never wanted to feel _great_ quite like this.

He’s never wanted to share in that power, that confidence, that cocksureness so openly, so needily, so deeply before.

He wants to feel Jack.

 

[ _On my mind, on my mind_

_On my mind, on my mind -_

_On my mind,_

_Yeah, you’ve been on my mind._ ]

 

“That’s alright,” Gabriel murmurs, feeling his intensity grow even as he glances back at the screen to fire another shot at another duck.  Jack doges it in time, and Gabriel smirks at him, pressing his lips against Jack’s again, saying with a low rumble, “I’m not a sore loser.”

“Mmm,” Jack hums against him, “But then it’s no fun if you just let me win.”  He nips lightly at Gabriel’s lower lip, which causes a shiver to liquify Gabriel’s spine and sparks a series of tingles across his skin, like a pleasant electric current through his nerves.  Jack leans back slightly before grinning, “How ‘bout we raise the stakes?”

Gabriel wants little more than to feel Jack’s lips against his, feel Jack’s hands on him, feel Jack inside and out but -

Jack can convince him to do (almost) anything -

And after last time -

Gabriel’s pretty sure his brain fucking short-circuits when he remembers it because he thinks he can _still feel_ Jack - still feel his words, aching and needy, against Gabriel’s ear; still feel his hands, fingernails biting into Gabriel’s shoulders; still feel his lips, across Gabriel’s body, down to Gabriel’s waiting cocksureness which Jack unraveled -

He can still feel Jack, inside and out, soft and hard, sweet and bitter, gentle and firm, playful and rough, holding Gabriel from the inside as his hands held him outside and -

Gabriel knows he’s been awkward and stiff and clumsy since - he’s too aware and too self-aware not to know - but he couldn’t stop himself: every word, every touch, every movement from Jack sets him _on fire_ , because _he can still feel him_ , set into the scratches on Gabriel’s back, into the words ringing in Gabriel’s ears, into the piece of Jack in Gabriel’s soul.

He’s totally, 110% fucked for Jack.

So yeah,

After last time -

Gabriel would be willing to try anything remotely suggestive Jack suggests.

...Okay, no - he _probably_ would not roleplay a duck for Jack.

Gabriel has some pride.  It’s mostly in bits and pieces on the floor, but it’s still there.

Gabriel fires at the duck again and -

BANG!

It falls due to Jack being focused on Gabriel.  The older candidate looks at him with a taunting grin, asking, “What’re you thinkin’?”

“Hmm,” Jack mutters, tapping at the d-pad loosely as the next duck appears, and he sends it ducking, juking, and jittering across the screen.  Jack says, rolling each word with aching, melting confidence, “We start a new round - normal rules: you kill as many of my ducks as you can.  And then we switch and I get to try.  Winner gets to…”

Jack gives Gabriel that raw, terrible, _breathtakingly brilliant_ smile that leaves Gabriel _feeling_.

“Winner gets to tell the loser what to do the rest of the day, and the loser has to do what he wants?”

God _damn_ , that sends sparking electricity straight to Gabriel’s cock.

Gabriel grins roguishly at Jack, firing off the remaining rounds and getting a [FLY AWAY!] screen.  As the game returns to the main menu, he chuckles darkly, “Only our first date and you wanna get us to start using safe words.”

“Never hurts to think ahead,” Jack teases back, settling comfortably against Gabriel, as Gabriel’s right hand traces gentle fingers through that gold-blonde hair.  The younger candidate suddenly lilts, “I’m thinking ‘duck’ for ‘slow down’, ‘goose’ for ‘please stop’ -”

“Jesus _Christ_ ,” Gabriel groans and Jack laughs freely, the sound pressing deep into Gabriel, both inside and out, “Unless those are turn ons for you!”

“Fucking _hell_ , Jack,” Gabriel growls, but there’s no anger, not even frustration -

When they’re together,

They get to be themselves.

And that means letting Jack’s ridiculous sense of humor spark Gabriel’s heart, his hope, his candor -

That means letting Jack’s jokes and humor and laughter in.

That means feeling Jack inside and out.

And to Gabriel -

_It feels great._

...even with the shitty duck jokes.

“God _fucking dammit_ , now I have to win just to get you to shut the fuck up,” Gabriel grumbles and Jack just cackles, “I’d like to see you fucking try.”

“You’re fucking with the best supersoldier candidate in this goddamn facility,” Gabriel retorts, selecting [Game A - 1 duck] again, and Jack grins wildly, “Oh trust me, I _know_ who I’m fucking, Reyes -”

“I don’t think you do, Morrison, or you wouldn’t be talking such _shit_ right now,” Gabriel laughs back as they immediately begin chasing each other across the screen: Jack tapping the d-pad furiously as the duck jerks about the screen unpredictably and Gabriel -

He leans over and gently nips at the shell of Jack’s ear.

“ _Ah, Gabriel_!” Jack says sharply, twitching slightly in shock, which gets him to mistap a direction on the d-pad and -

POP!

The first duck drops dead.

“Play fair, Gabi,” Jack growls, but his words drizzle off into a slight groan as Gabriel’s teeth gently scrape at the soft sensitive patch of skin behind his ear.  Gabriel whispers warmly into his skin, “All’s fair in love and duck hunting.”

“This wasn’t part of the rules,” Jack grumbles as the second duck appears and he begins to maneuver it -

But Gabriel gently entwines his fingers through that gold-blonde hair and tugs slightly as he presses a kiss to Jack’s head - Jack hisses with a slight, pleasure whine as Gabriel flicks his eyes back to the screen -

SNAP!

The second duck dies.

“You said there was a trick to the game,” Gabriel murmurs into that soft hair, enjoying the slight heave of Jack’s body against him.  The older candidate smiles faintly, enjoying the clean, warm fluff against his cheek, “I’m just trying to figure it out.  Tactics, ya know?”

“It’s not in the spirit of the competition,” Jack snaps, but there’s no anger, not even frustration -

Gabriel can _feel_ the aching in his words and breaths.

“I think it’s _precisely_ in the exact spirit of this competition,” Gabriel chuckles as he shifts his hand down to -

Cover Jack’s eyes.

“ _JODER, PINCHE PENDEJO_ -” Jack shouts as Gabriel cackles, killing the fourth, fifth, and sixth ducks as Jack squirms to get Gabriel’s hand off of his face.  He jabs his left elbow into Gabriel’s side, getting the older candidate to flinch and release his grip slightly.  Jack shakes his head, saying loudly but excitedly, “Now THAT was _not_ in the spirit of competition, even this one!”

“Sure it was,” Gabriel chuckles darkly, killing the seventh duck as Jack struggles to square himself up and the eighth duck immediately begins a sporadic, flailing dance as Jack’s thumb taps the d-pad furiously, his blue eyes lit with power and energy and _pure confidence_ -

Gabriel pulls him closer again before nuzzling against his ear, “I wanted to see how you’d react to being blindfolded later -”

Jack’s whole body freezes and shudders as the effect of Gabriel’s words roll throw him and -

BANG!

The eighth duck falls dead as Gabriel laughs, “But with your reaction, that’d be a ‘goose,’ huh -?”

“I’d try anything you want.”

Now Gabriel stops because -

“I mean...we’d have to talk about it first still,” Jack mutters but there’s no anger, not even frustration - not even expectations.  There is just -

Honesty - an open hope and candor.

“But I...if it’s something you really want to try, then I want to try it with you,” Jack smiles at him, strong and sweet and gentle and playful all at once and Gabriel -

“Also I can already tell you I like being blindfolded,” Jack smirks with a dark gleam in his eyes.  The ninth duck escapes from the screen.  Gabriel thinks he’ll probably strangle that _motherfucking pendejo Andrew_ if he ever sees him again -

Gabriel scowls, dark and bittersweet and smokey, and Jack seems to light up at the sight of it, a barely-veiled, excited _needy_ look spreading on his face.

Gabriel fires a his remaining shots at the screen and the screen cycles back to the main menu.  Jack doesn’t look away from him, but just states with a low, deadly, _aching_ tone, “...I told you ‘it’s not fun if you let me win.’”

“You’re going to lose.”

Gabriel revels in the flash of mixed-panic, shock, and _unbridled excitement_ that his words spark on Jack’s face.  He grins at him smugly, feeling his own need, his own desire to _feel_ Jack grow at the expression, handing him the Wiimote as his right hand pulls the gamepad from Jack’s grasp.  Gabriel leans in close, smirking as he murmurs against Jack’s lips:

“You’re fucking with the best, _pendejo_ \- think you can outplay me?”

Jack shudders, pressing his lips to Gabriel’s in an aching, needy, _feeling_ kiss, rich with urgency and a desire as deep as the ocean, and Gabriel drowns in his power for a lingering moment, before he pulls back, teasing, “Now, Juan, you started this - you gotta compete to the end.”

“Hmm,” Jack grumbles slightly as Gabriel uses his left hand to pull the younger candidate in front of him.  He wraps his arms around Jack, settling in behind him as Jack leans back against him, warm and strong and sweet and gentle all at once.  Jack’s only an inch or so shorter than him, so it’s impossible to see, but Gabriel pops his head to the left as his hands trade the gamepad so he can tap at the d-pad.

And now he can see and _feel_ all of Jack, pressed against him and _fuck_ , it’s getting hard to concentrate as Jack fires up a final round of hunting and -

Jack grinds against him.

Jesus _Christ_ , the friction of his ass against Gabriel’s already stiffening cock sends a strong, pulsating wave of pleasure into Gabriel’s groin and _fuck_ -

“Two can play at this game, Gabi,” Jack laughs darkly as he kills the first duck on the screen and Gabriel groans.  The older candidate presses his cheek into the side of his partner’s gold-blonde head, growling, “ _Damn right_ I can.”

“I was talking about _me_ , asshole -”

“I know what you meant,” Gabriel murmurs, as his right hand hikes up the edge of Jack’s t-shirt, and the blonde’s breath catches at the sudden touch of fingers against the soft-firm muscles of his stomach and _fuck_ , Gabriel wants to feel them against his own body instead.

“This is _definitely_ getting - ah - getting unbalanced,” Jack gasps, his right hand with the Wiimote starting to shake slightly.  Gabriel’s left thumb taps the d-pad in any direction and it’s enough to make Jack’s shot miss entirely.  Gabriel nips playfully at Jack’s ear and the crook of his jaw as his right fingers drag lightly up and down his chest and _fuck_ , he’s warm, he’s so warm - he’s a perfect mix of strong and soft, gentle and playful, even as he grinds almost reflexively against Gabriel again and Gabriel groans against his neck, “You should’ve bribed the ref.”

“I thought I _did_ bribe the ref,” Jack laughs, but there’s a trembling hitch to his voice and Gabriel taps the d-pad again as Jack misses his shot, but the blonde just chuckles, “But it doesn’t seem to have worked.”

The second duck flies away.

“I’m your competition, not the ref,” Gabriel snaps playfully, moving his hand back down as Jack retorts, “You can be judge, jury, and executioner for me, Gabi - _AH_!”

Gabriel’s right hand slips beneath the bands of Jack’s fatigues and his boxer briefs, his fingers slipping through the wiry hairs to Jack’s cock, half-stiff, the skin a velvet warmth of soft-hard heat.  Gabriel buries his head against Jack’s neck, whispering with the faintest touch of hesitancy, “Am I being too unfair, Jack?  Should I stop?”

“...No.  Keep going, Gabi, _please_ \- _please be unfair with me_.”

Finally.

Finally, after three long days of _feeling_ Jack in every word, every touch, every movement -

Gabriel can finally _feel_ Jack again.

Gabriel taps the d-pad, sending the third duck to the edge of the screen as he -

Gabriel wraps his hand around that confident, cocksure heat and pumps - Jack shudders and groans against him, the sounds reverberating all the way through Gabriel’s chest and his ribs and down to his soul, sparking and zapping with Jack’s watery current.

“C’mon, _cabrón, cariño,_ Juan,” Gabriel urges him, taunting him, teasing him strong and sweet, gentle and playful, “It’s not fun if you just let me win.”

Jack makes a halfhearted attempt to fire at the fourth duck on the screen, even has his hips shiver slightly, pushing into Gabriel’s hand all on his own before sliding back against Gabriel’s body, just enough to make Gabriel _ache_ \- he wants he wants he wants -

He wants to _feel more_.

Gabriel doesn’t even care about winning or losing anymore.

He’s already won.

Gabriel tightens his grip slightly and Jack moans, unable to do anything but unravel in Gabriel’s hands and _fuck_ , the sound of Jack calling his name makes him feel

 _Great_.

In one swift movement, Gabriel tosses the gamepad on the floor and unwraps himself from Jack, who whines slightly as the older candidate separates himself, snaking around to the front of his partner, whose eyes are flooded with growing desperation.

Gabriel scowls at him, dark and bittersweet and smokey, snapping, “I’m not going to play fair.”

“I know,” Jack gasps, staring down into Gabriel’s soul and all the hesitant confidence dwelling inside it.  Jack gives him a breaking smile, “ _Te quiero tal como eres."_

_I want you as you are._

_I love you as you are._

Gabriel falls to his knees before him.

Jack never asks Gabriel to be anything else, to be anyone else.  He never asks Gabriel to be patient, to be proud, to be perfect - he never asks Gabriel to perform, to please, to plead.

But with Jack,

Gabriel wants to.

With Jack,

Gabriel wants to be himself.

Gabriel unbuttons and unzippers Jack’s fatigues, the younger candidate gasping as he pulls down the waistband of the pants and his underwear, exposing Jack’s stiff cock.  Gabriel licks his lips as he presses his fingers to the sides of Jack’s hip bones, pulling him closer and guiding him to to his mouth -

“ _Gabriel_ ,” Jack moans, his own name feels delicious and heated with the _ache_ in Jack’s voice and Gabriel grins before he kisses at Jack’s cock -

And then Gabriel swallows him down.

“ _FUCK_ ,” Jack groans as Gabriel delights in the thick, full feeling of sucking on him, he who Gabriel would get on hands and knees for, he who Gabriel would break every rule for, he who fills Gabriel with strong sweetness, gentle playfulness, with soft-hard velvety heat and the press of rich skin against his tongue and cheeks and lips.

Jack is strong and soft, sweet and bitter, gentle and firm, playful and rough all at once and Gabriel -

Gabriel _feels great_.

Jack _feels great_ to him.

Gabriel sucks down, alternating between harder, deeper pressure and softer rolls, letting his tongue slick up the underside of the head as Jack gasps, dropping the Wiimote, his hands moving to claw lightly at Gabriel’s shaved head - frisson blooms across Gabriel’s scalp at the feeling of fingernails scratching him gently -

“ _Joder, joder, Gabi_ \- fuuuuu _uck_ ,” Jack gasps, shaking even as he struggles to keep his hips still as Gabriel sucks on his cock.  Gabriel’s own cock grows all the stiffer with the broken, needy sounds Jack makes, feeling them ache through his body even has he feels Jack’s pressure push against his tongue -

Gabriel pops off Jack’s dick for a second to ask bluntly, “Have I won yet?”

“Huh?” Jack gasps, his eyes are lost and his focus is unraveling, but after a moment, his mind processes the question and he croaks, “Oh, yeah - shit, yeah, you’ve won, please, Gabi - tell me what you want -”

“I want you to fuck me.”

 

\---------

 

_On my mind, on my mind_

_On my mind, on my mind -_

_On my mind,_

_Yeah, you’ve been on my mind._

 

_Hey, hey, yeah you have, baby, baby -_

_Never wanna let you go-o-o-o-ah_

 


	2. 127 + 76: Feel Great

**127 + 76: Feel Great**

 

“I want you to fuck me.”

Jack’s eyes grow wide at the words and Gabriel -

He knows he is not eloquent enough to describe his desires, not in the same strong and soft, gentle and playful ways Jack did last time.  He knows he is not eloquent enough to express how, even though he’d been the one doing the fucking last time, he somehow still _feels_ Jack beneath his skin, aching with every word, every touch, every movement.  He knows he is not eloquent enough to tell Jack that his hesitancy over the last three days wasn’t because Jack did anything wrong, but because Jack did everything _right._

Gabriel knows he is not eloquent enough to say that he hesitates not because he feels awkward and clumsy but because he -

He wants to do better.

He wants to be all that Jack sees in him and more.

He wants to _feel_ all that Jack sees in him and more.

Gabriel stares up at Jack, at eyes as wide as the sky and as deep as the oceans and he says, with the faintest touch of hesitancy:

“I...I want to feel you.  Is that okay?”

Jack looks at him in pure shock, eyes roaming over Gabriel’s face, over the soft-hard angles of smoke made corporeal, over the confusion in those light-dark eyes with soft flakes of red and gold and amber, over the gorgeous face of the man - his partner - who has zero awareness of his own worth, his own regality, his own strength that is at times loud and boisterous and smug and at times quiet and focused and terribly keen.

The look of hesitancy on Gabriel’s face makes Jack’s heart _ache_.

He would give _everything_ to destroy the fear that lingers in Gabriel’s heart.

And so that is what Jack sets out to do.

He smiles wildly, gasping as his hands shift to the sides of Gabriel’s face, holding him with strong sweetness, gentle playfulness as he stammers with excited bewilderment:

“‘Is that okay??’  Gabriel, that is - _that is more than okay_.  Holy _shit_ , that is - _absolutely_.  I want - you know that I’m comfortable switching, right?  Did you think that I wasn’t??  I told you - _if you want to try something, I want to try it with you._  You just have to ask, _pendejo_ \- oh my god, _qué chingados_ , you don’t even know - I want to be with you in every way imaginable.”

“...Seriously?” Gabriel asks, reeling a little from the sudden onslaught of information overload and Jack beams at him with a brilliantly breathtaking light, “Holy shit, _fuck yeah_.  You just - you just have to tell me.  You just have to ask.   _Te quiero tal como eres_.”

_I want you as you are._

_I love you as you are._

Suddenly, Jack is kneeling on the floor beside him and wrapping his arms around Gabriel and the moment -

The moment feels _surreal_

In the _greatest_ way possible.

Gabriel hugs him back, burying his burning, steaming face into the side of Jack’s neck as he murmurs, “...Thank you.”  Jack shivers slightly at the feeling, but the pleasure that ripples through him is more joy than desire - the words burn a lightweight buoyancy in his heart that makes Jack feel like he’s drifting across a warm, sunlit ocean.  Jack nuzzles against the soft fuzz of Gabriel’s shaved hair, and Gabriel feels a strong, sweet, gentle, playful kiss press into the side of his head as Jack whispers back, “You’re allowed to ask for the things you want.  There’s nothing we can’t talk about or work through.”

Gabriel wonders if it’s possible to be 120% royally _fucked_ for another person.

He wonders if it’s possible to feel too much.

He’s not in denial but -

He wonders if it’s possible to feel another person too much.

He doesn’t care if it is.

Together -

They feel great.

Gabriel smiles as he mutters, “...Are we doing it on the floor again?”

Jack smiles to himself as he feels the faintest touches of hesitancy burn away from Gabriel with the words, strong and sweet, gentle and playful.  

“Haha, is that what you want?” Jack laughs warmly against his head, sending small shivers of frisson against Gabriel’s scalp, and Jack continues, “Cause, see, there’s this crazy thing called a ‘bed’ we could try -”

“Holy shit, dude, I’m gonna need to start using the safe words if you’re gonna sling around that kinda wild dirty talk,” Gabriel teases and Jack’s laughter rolls through him like summer thunderstorms and bright sunshowers and the blonde bubbles happily, “If you use the word ‘duck’ when I’m fucking you, I _will_ leave you high and dry.”

“Okay, but what if I say ‘duck me harder, _pendejo_ ’ - what will that get me?” Gabriel smirks and Jack groans, “That will get me to leave this fucking program, Reyes.”

“Sweet - less competition for the Top Rank,” the older candidate chuckles as Jack sighs, pulling away from him and tugging him upwards, “C’mon, we can do it on the floor if you want but I still feel it from last time so can we at least start on the bed -?”

“So it worked, huh?”

Gabriel’s words are dripping with teasing playfulness, but there’s a dark, swirling ache to his voice too, rife with faint touches of neediness and desire.  And Jack looks at those light-dark eyes, flaked with red and gold and amber and -

There’s no hesitancy.

There’s no confusion.

There is only a fire, burning deep and desirous, steady and hot, dark and bittersweet and smokey and Jack feels all his energy refocus behind his cock with renewed energy because he needs to _feel that_.

Jack stares into Gabriel’s eyes, before he gives his own dark, honey-glazed, wicked smirk, laughing, “ _Fuck yeah, it worked_.”  He entwines his fingers around Gabriel’s left hand, pulling him closer - Gabriel’s right hand goes back to Jack’s hip bone, digging into the skin slightly and _shit_ , Jack cannot _wait_ to feel those hands on his back, around his neck, or watch them fist into sheets under straining pleasure -

“ _Want me to do that to you?_ ” Jack asks against Gabriel’s lips and tremor ripples through Gabriel at the words and the thought - he would never deny the fact that he’s definitely thought about it, he’s absolutely thought about it: the thought of Jack being commanding, being strong and sweet, filling him with his hard, arrogant cocksureness, fucking him down into a mattress as he whispers Gabriel’s name against his skin, as he pleasures Gabriel from the inside out -

Gabriel kisses Jack and revels at how Jack melts into the action, immediately slotting himself right up against Gabriel, how perfectly their hands and bodies fit together, in every way imaginable, how he _shouldn’t_ be excited over the feeling of Jack’s hard cock pressing against his sweatpants - still hanging out, it _should_ look ridiculous (heh - re-dick-ulous), but for some reason, Gabriel just wants, he wants he wants he wants -

His right hand tugs at Jack’s cock insistently as Jack pulls him even closer, grinding into his palm and _fuck_ , he shouldn’t feel so turned on just from some dude rubbing his cock all over him but -

But it’s _not_ just some dude.

In the distant parts of his mind, Gabriel knows he’s 120% in too deep.

And he’s perfectly alright with drowning in everything Jack has to offer.

Jack gasps against Gabriel’s lips, shuddering as those rough, calloused fingers pull at his aching cock with teasing jerks and tugs, even as Jack is jerking and tugging the _pendejo_ backwards - he guesses it’s his turn to be the one to get them to move to the bed, it’s only fair given he was such an unhelpful asshole about it last time.  He twists and turns them to it - it’s not far but it _feels_ miles away - until he somehow manages to get Gabriel to sit back on it, and, though he doesn’t want to pull himself away from the lips and hands holding him, Jack forces himself to -

“ _Qué_?” Gabriel asks hazily as Jack shifts away from him, but his eyes light up as Jack tugs his shirt off, relishing at how the swell of his muscles rise and fall with the motion, at the crest of his shoulders, at the flex of his arms.  Jack’s always been fit, always had more muscle mass than most people assumed from appearances alone, but now that the chemical and hormonal enhancements were starting to really kick it, the “blonde kid from bumfuck Indiana” was truly shaping into something _great_.  Between sparring with Gabriel, the pressure of training, the rush of the simulations, “Rank Ten” was beginning to look like every bit of the mortal Apollo he was supposed to be.

Gabriel silently thanks God and all the saints and every force in the universe for the blessing, but he also growls out, “You could let me do that, you know?”

“I’m - hang on -” Jack mumbles, hopping on one foot as he rips a sock off his foot and bolts to the door.  He pushes it open slightly, wedges the sock in the crack, and then slides it shut -

“...Are you fucking serious?” Gabriel nearly chokes and Jack whips back around, filled with bright-eyed and wicked determination, “I’m gonna make Carlos and Adrien choke on their words.  This is their warning.”

Gabriel takes it back.

It is _entirely_ possible to care for someone too much.

He fucking _howls_ with laughter at the sight of Jack, excessively proud of himself, wearing only his fatigues, underwear, and a single sock, his half-hard dick hanging out, the green-tinted light frosting him with the soft glow of life, his eyes glittering like the ocean beneath the sun and Gabriel -

He’s not in denial -

He knows exactly what he’s feeling.

Even if he can’t say it aloud.

Not yet.

Jack smirks at the older candidate nearly sobbing with laughter on his bed, feeling rather victorious at how the day is progressing, at how the sun seems to shine a little brighter with Gabriel’s laughter, at how despite making a massive fool of himself he would do it again and again if it made Gabriel that happy -

Jack darts over to his storage box, twisting the dial lock through the combination as Gabriel hacks and wheezes, “ _AY DIOS MIO, joder, pinche joder, mierda_ -”  Jack grins to himself as he pulls the lock off and cracks the trunk open, digging through his spare clothes and a bunch of coffee canisters to find the med kit.  He pops that open, pulling out some packets of lube and a couple of condoms and tossing them on the bed, causing Gabriel to interrupt his laughter with injections of, “Oh _shit_ , what the _fuck_ \- ow, dammit, Jack, stop throwing shit at me -”

“Serves you right for how you played,” Jack chuckles, putting the med kit back and shutting his storage box again.  He pops up to see Gabriel giving him a mixed-scowl-grin thing, and the older candidate mumbles, “You liked it though.”

“I sure as fuck did,” Jack says cheerfully, sliding himself up over the foot of the bed to lean right back into Gabriel’s space, slotting himself in between Gabriel’s thighs (god, he cannot _wait_ to feel them wrapped around his hips, he’s pretty sure his cock just twitched in pleasure from the thought alone), pressing his lips to Gabriel’s and -

Gabriel lets Jack back into him, into his space - lets his warm, heated, sunkissed lips fit against his own, and it burns something warm, heated, and sunkissed in his heart to know that Jack wants him like this too, that Jack would take Gabriel’s own furious need and desires down into rugburns on the floor, or that Jack would _also_ take Gabriel’s openness, his need to _feel_ , his _aching_ for Jack to get under his skin and make him _weak_ and _strong_ -

Strong and sweet and gentle and playful -

All at once.

“...You’re eager,” Gabriel mumbles, as Jack kisses at the corner of his lips, one hand stroking through the softness of Gabriel’s growing beard, the other brushing across Gabriel’s cheek and Gabriel shudders at how good all three touches feel, how they are simultaneously tender and firm and needy -

Gabriel’s own hands wrap up against the broad muscles of Jack’s back, and _holy shit_ , he’s warm, he’s solid, he’s very real, he’s powerful and he’s forceful and he’s confidence incarnate and -

“Of course I am,” Jack whispers in between kisses and he loves how Gabriel’s fingers dig into his shoulders at the words.  Jack’s own hands drift lower, his right hand is pulling at the hem of Gabriel’s t-shirt, his left hand tracing across soft-firm muscles that shiver and clench beneath his touch and _god_ , he wants he wants he wants to _feel_ Gabriel, inside out and outside in -

“...I want to help you feel good, Gabriel,” Jack murmurs, voice as dangerous as honey and as sweet as poison and Gabriel shudders under their weight, a bittersweet comfortable pressure that puts a slow roll of pleasure through him, as those insistent, needy fingers push his shirt higher and climb his chest and -

“I know I was stupid,” Jack continues, kissing at his jawline, his neck, working up to nip at his ear, “I know I was slow to realize - but I’m here now.  You don’t have to wait, you don’t have to be patient, _you just need to ask_ -”

Jack groans at how Gabriel’s fingernails bite into his skin as his partner shudders at the words.

“Hurry, Jack,” Gabriel urges him - not forcefully, just faintly, barely more than a whisper - and Jack pulls away to help rip Gabriel’s shirt off of him, sighing with contentment when he moves back, pressing skin on skin, soft warmth and hard muscle against each other, light and dark, sun and smoke and they -

They wouldn’t want it any other way.

Jack’s hands roam over Gabriel’s body as Gabriel shivers - heat spreads everywhere they touch, it flourishes from wherever Jack kisses, his lips are on Gabriel’s neck, his shoulder, his chest, laced with small nips and bites, and Gabriel groans, carding his hands through Jack’s hair as he lets the younger candidate have his fill of him -

Jack dips his hands to the banding of Gabriel’s sweatpants, delighting at the soft choking of breath that gets from his partner, and as his fingers slowly, teasingly pull the fabric of his pants and boxers away from his skin, Jack tilts his gaze - heated and heavy with controlled desperation - to Gabriel’s face, which is flush with a mixture of delight and pleasure and a hazy focus -

“...Do you think of me?” Jack asks in a low, rumbling, thunderstorm voice, and _god_ , the look of fervor that passes through Gabriel’s gaze sends its own wave of ecstasy and shuddering pleasure through Jack, but then Gabriel -

There’s the faintest touch of hesitancy that Jack does _not_ miss.

“...You don’t have you tell me,” Jack adds, softening his tone, “I know it was difficult - I know you were patient and -”

“I didn’t.”

Gabriel’s scowling, but there’s no anger, no frustration -

Just dark, bittersweet, smokey concentration.

The older candidate looks at him thoughtfully, running a gentle set of fingers through Jack’s hair.  He’s not eloquent enough to describe how agonizing it had been to pine for Jack for nearly a year and a half before Jack broke it off with his boyfriend.  He’s not eloquent enough to explain how he had once again poured his thoughts - dark, sorrowful, bittersweet thoughts - into other outlets, to soldier onwards in being better, in feeling _great_ , even when his heart wanted nothing more than to fall to his knees and -

“...I couldn’t,” Gabriel murmurs as Jack’s rainstorm gaze assesses him calmly, “Not until you asked me to come here with you.”

But somehow…

Jack seems to understand anyways.

Jack’s heated gaze begins to liquify again as he nuzzles against Gabriel’s left hip, resuming pulling down his waistbands and the sheer _thrill_ of the sight makes Gabriel shake slightly, and Jack whispers in a dangerous, _desirous_ tone, “...Have you thought of me since then?”

“...All the time,” Gabriel grits out and Jack presses a deep, sucking kiss against Gabriel’s hip, right beside his 127 tattoo, and Gabriel groans at the feeling, as Jack -

He pulls Gabriel’s pants down a bit further and exposes that thick, soft-hard, velvety warm cock among dark, thick hairs and _fuck_ , he would shower it with love and affection and quite a lot of tongue all day if he could.

“Will you tell me?” Jack asks, as he wraps his right hand around Gabriel’s cock and Gabriel moans - it is the most open, vulnerable sound he’s ever made, dripping with want and _ache_ and need, as he gasps, “ _FUCK_ , Jack, shit - I, _fuck_ , I don’t know if I can -”

“You don’t have to - only if you want to,” Jack whispers, beginning to pump his hand as he kisses at the base of Gabriel’s cock, relishing in how warm and smooth the feeling is.  His left hand roots around for one of the small foil packets, finding a few of them spread across the sheets where they’d landed from his wild tosses.  He brings it to his teeth and tears a corner off, before pouring the gel onto Gabriel’s cock, slicking up both his hand and Gabriel’s hardness, pumping the wetness across them both and -

Gabriel groans as the slick, tight heat spreads over him, as Jack’s fingers turn from rough callouses to a slicker, smoother feeling and _shit_ , he’s not sure he can say what he’s thinking, what he wants, _how_ he wants -

How he’s wanted Jack for so long -

How he would take Jack any way Jack would offer.

“I - _joder_ \- I’ve thought - Jesus _Christ_ , Jack, that feels _so good_ \- I’ve thought about…” Gabriel groans as the pressure continues unrelenting, Jack’s hand setting the perfect pace - fast enough to tease and tantalize and build pleasurable pressure throughout his cock and groin and up into his spine like liquid lightning, but just slow enough to give him _maddening_ control, to make him dole out the feeling in steady jerks of his hand and tender kisses along his shaft and _fuck_ , Jack presses his lips to the head, kissing and sucking just shallowly enough to be _infuriating_ \- too much and not enough at the same time -

A release of energy and a frustrating build up of it at the same time -

A revolution and rage and a rush -

“I’ve thought -” Gabriel presses onwards, because he wants to share himself with Jack as much as Jack has shared with him, and Jack’s eyes watch him piercingly, striking down into the depths of his soul and even if Jack doesn’t know the specifics, even if he’ll never be able to draw out Gabriel’s deepest, darkest, most bittersweet, smokey thoughts from the corners of his mind -

He knows.

He knows that Gabriel wants him, that he’s thought of him -

That Gabriel will take him any way they decide together.

Jack is _thrilled_ and fueled by the that thought alone, a spike of pleasure lacing through him, making him _ache_ and _need_ all throughout -

“I’ve thought -” Gabriel heaves again as Jack returns to lavishing slow and fast, soft and hard attention to Gabriel’s cock and the older candidate finally -

He finally cracks.

“I’ve thought of getting you alone - getting you into a dark corner or a shower stall - _pinche mierda, joder_ , fuck _me_ , that feels good, Jack - I’ve thought of waking you up at night and - _fuuuuuck_ me - bringing you to some fucking closest or something, _CHRIST_ -” Gabriel chokes and gasps as Jack kisses and sucks on his cock, hand pumping, left hand bringing him another lube packet even as Jack struggles to maintain control of himself -

Gabriel’s words give him a fierce, furious _need_ to _feel_ him.

“Not a fan of the cameras, Gabi?” Jack teases him, his tone dark and edging towards a slow break, and Gabriel shakes, his hips shuddering up into Jack’s hand, the pleasure rippling downwards and through him.  Jack rips open the second lube packet, releasing his right hand temporarily as Gabriel groans:

“I don’t want anyone else to see us like this.”

“You’re not into voyeurism, hmm?” Jack hums patiently, but his own urge is building, building, like a storm over the ocean, frothing and roiling achingly inside him, drizzling the gel out onto his right fingers, but Gabriel just gasps:

“I don’t want anyone but you to see me like this.”

Jack stops.

Because even if he only knows a few details of the dark, sorrowful, bittersweet thoughts that ache inside Gabriel -

Because even though Gabriel often struggles to convey his deepest emotions beyond tactics or jokes or history or mixed English-Spanish -

Because even though Gabriel has struggled to be patient and quietly strong for nearly two years -

That single line says volumes to Jack.

Jack looks up into light-dark eyes, starred with red and gold and amber, like drops of the sun itself, and Gabriel looks back, verging on open and vulnerable and _wrecked_ in the best possible way -

Jack doesn’t want anyone else seeing him like this either.

“... _Fucking HELL_ , Gabriel,” Jack swears vehemently as his control unravels and Gabriel -

Gabriel smiles at him, a mix of strong and soft, gentle and playful and -

Jack tosses the empty foil packet _wherever_ \- he doesn’t give a fuck about trash right now, Gabriel wants him, _Gabriel needs him_ \- and pulls at Gabriel’s pants, jerking them down with some awkward fumbling that, graciously, Gabriel doesn’t seem to care about, he’s whispering darkly, urging Jack on, “ _Rápido, Jack, por favor - quiero sentirte_ -”

Somehow, they get Gabriel’s pants off most of the way, and Jack dives back at him, pulling him down further on the bed and closer to him, closer to his _ache_ , even with slick fingers and heated desire as Gabriel tugs at his hands -

Jack wraps his left hand around Gabriel’s cock, growling out a low rumble as Gabriel groans and shudders.  He spreads Gabriel’s legs wider, eyes roaming over the glowing, flushed skin, over his thick thighs and swelling muscle and _fuck_ , Jack wants, he wants he wants he wants -

The _ache_ to feel Gabriel burns harder and hotter than ever.

Jack rubs his right fingers against Gabriel’s ring of muscles, letting them slick up and relax the tense clench there, as Gabriel shakes from the pressure being pumped onto his cock.  Jack pushes himself back down, ignoring the fierce strain of friction of the bedsheet against his own aching, throbbing dick, and he kisses and nips lightly at Gabriel’s thighs, his hips, the base of his cock, the tender skin of his balls -

“ _JODER_ ,” Gabriel shouts, bucking slightly, as Jack works a finger into him, strong yet soft, firm yet gentle, rough yet playful, pressing into him and pushing in and out into his heat, his pressure, the strain of it is awkward but there’s pleasure rippling through him from up, from where Jack is giving his aching cock such _incredible friction_ , from where his warm, sunkissed lips are teasing at the head -

There’s a warmth and a slow roll of relaxation through his tense, tight insides as Jack continues to ease his finger - and then slowly a second - into him.  Gabriel’s hands are somehow in Jack’s hair, tugging and twisting lightly and Jack gives a soft, humming groan that sends rippling vibrations up Gabriel’s cock, straight to the base of his spine -

“What else do you want me to do, Gabriel?” Jack asks him soothingly, pulling off his cock briefly as he shifts his grip slightly, changing the pressure just enough to make Gabriel moan, those fingers in his hair tensing and scratching and Jack shudders at how good in makes him feel -

“ _FUCK_ , I don’t know, I just - I’ve wanted this for _so long_ \- _pinche mierda,_ fucking shit, Jack, more, give me more -” Gabriel begs and Jack presses his fingers in a bit further, teasing them against the heat and sliding them back down, in and out, in and out with a slow, rhythm, fucking Gabriel open steadily -

“Do you know where your prostate is?” Jack asks and it’s such an open, honest, almost clinical question, but Jack doesn’t want to be wrong, he doesn’t want to rush, he doesn’t want to be “good enough” for Gabriel -

He wants to help him feel _great_.

“I... _fuck_ , I don’t know - it’s been so long, _joder, joder_ ,” Gabriel gasps, he’s starting to come undone now, his hesitation is melting away with each press of Jack’s fingers and each pump of Jack’s hand, how his left thumb will reach out and rub over his head slowly, or how his right thumb will rub against his outer muscles as his fingers inside stretch and push with a slow-burning pleasure -

“You’re gonna have to be patient with me a little longer, Gabi,” Jack murmurs gently, despite the _turmoil_ raging inside him - Gabriel’s left hand has fallen off his head and is practically ripping the sheets beneath him, his hips are shaking _delightfully_ , and Jack feels his storm grow, furious and terrible, his eyes lit with churning lightning and thunder, as he teases, “Let me know when you feel it.”

“Shit, shit, _fuck_ , _fuuuuck_ ,” Gabriel offers, unhelpful in the _best way_ as the pressure and pleasure continue to grow and build, burning from teasing, straining warmth into strong, playful heat, like a fire being kindled inside him, working through him, inside and out, up his spine into the piece of Jack stitched into his soul -

It blazes like a sun -

He’s gasping and straining as the ecstasy build and build and builds -

Suddenly, Jack gives a twist of his fingers and presses in on something firmer and pleasure _blossoms_ through Gabriel’s lower body like sparks of lightning, reaching out and snapping at nerves and racing up his spine into his back and he’s shouting something indiscernible, arcing against the pressure and Jack eases off only to ease back in and Gabriel -

“ _FUCKING HELL_ ,” Gabriel screams, partially due to his ineloquence and partially due to the fact that he’s seeing stars and snaps of light, he’s feeling them too, sparking and flaring through him like the recoil of a good gun, like the burn of a good fight, like the pressure of Jack on his chest or Jack melting against him - inside him and outside him -

Jack’s eyes seem to _glow_ with the energy of his storm, as he watches Gabriel squirm and shiver - he’s not pressuring anything that hard, but it’s painful obvious in the best way that Gabriel hasn’t done this in awhile, that he needs warming up, that he needs to relax and open up and unravel a little before Jack’s own aching needs can feel anything, and Jack -

Jack is perfectly _happy_ to wait patiently for that.

Just watching all his stress and hesitation burn away is one of the most incredible things Jack has ever seen.

His own cock is practically dripping with anticipation.

Gabriel falls back, panting and gasping, swear words in between breaths and breaths in between racing thoughts, spinning through the smokey haze as Jack chuckles like a dark, ink drop liquid blooming through water, “Looks like I found your trick, Gabriel.”

“Fucking...asshole,” Gabriel pants, but there’s no anger, no frustration, just the lazy, slow-moving smoke of ecstasy in his mind and body as Jack eases up and continues to work elsewhere, fucking his fingers into Gabriel in slow, rolling motions, causing the pleasure to bloom and blossom in strong yet soft, gentle yet playful waves.

“Hmm, well, I mean, I am.  Quite literally,” Jack laughs lightly, continuing to stroke him and pressure him in all the right ways before kneeling back down and returning to applying sucking kisses and nips to Gabriel’s thighs, which tremble and shake with each new, soft thrust -

“Keep talking, Gabi, _quiero oírte_ , tell me more about the things you want,” Jack murmurs, returning his lips to parts of Gabriel’s cock, his balls, the dip of his hips and Gabriel shudders slightly, moaning, “ _Fuck, Jack_ , I don’t know - I want - I want - _joder, qué chingados,_ shit - shower sex would be nice - _Jesus_ -”

“Haha, we’d get in trouble for that,” Jack laughs darkly, but the thought of Gabriel naked and covered in steaming water and heat is _excruciatingly enticing_ \- _someday_ , Jack decides right then and there, as he’s finger-fucking his partner open while pumping and kissing his cock, listening to his moans and swears and the shuddering of firm muscles, _we’ll have the opportunity to have shower sex anytime we want.  It’s never as good as you want it to be, but with Gabriel...well…_

And Jack looks at that hazy glow misting Gabriel’s eyes, and his face that’s showing more vulnerability than Jack’s ever seen on it before -

_Well, with Gabriel, even awkward shower sex will be great._

“What else, Gabi?” Jack asks, putting just enough pressure on him to get him to keep talking - to get him to open up - and just enough pressure in him to get him to shake again - to get him to open up - and Gabriel grits out, his words laced with swears, “ _FUCK_ , shit, I just - I want - I want to room with you - _joder,_ god _dammit_ -”

“...What?” Jack says, genuinely confused because that’s got to be the most bizarre thing anyone’s ever said to him during sex and Gabriel looks at him with slightly worried eyes flashing red-gold-amber in the half-light, babbling almost incoherently, “I just - I fucking - _fuck_ , _joder, pinche joder, Jack_ \- I want - it sounds so fucking stupid - _FUCK_ \- more, Jack, _please_ -”

Jack twists his fingers in again as he rubs his thumb against Gabriel’s cockhead and Gabriel hand in his hair _pulls_ , causing Jack to hiss in pleasured pain as his other hand strains the thread count of the sheets.

“ _Fuck me_ , I want to - I want to wake up next to you, _Jesus Christ, how are you doing that??_ \- it sounds so dumb, I know, _pinche idiota_ ,” Gabriel groans and Jack’s beginning to understand -

Even with Gabriel’s ineloquence, Jack knows.

“...I’d like that too,” Jack murmurs and Gabriel gives him a wide-eyed, desperate, _weak_ stare, as though walls of dull concrete and streets of cracked pavement and cities of pollution are crumbling inside him, and despite everything he’s doing to his partner, Jack smiles lightly, “You’ll have to get used to the smell of coffee at 4:30 am.”

“The _fuck_ are you doing awake at four-thirty in the morning - _holy shit_ ,” Gabriel gasps as Jack adds another finger and slowly increases his pressure.  Jack just chuckles, “Stretches, jumping jacks, I try to run around the halls - if they ever let us out of here, I’ll go back to running in the mornings.”

Gabriel groans as Jack asks him darkly, “Will you join me again?”

“Jesus, not at fucking _four-thirty AM_ ,” Gabriel hisses as his hips and thighs shudder and shake again, and he’s gasping, “No wonder you fucking _IV-drip_ your sludge.”

“Sounds like someone is _not_ gonna get coffee made for him in the mornings,” Jack says with a low, playful threat and Gabriel chokes out, “Wait, I take it back - _fuck_.”

“I see what I mean to you - just a quick, cheap cup of Joe, huh?” Jack teases him as Gabriel winds his fingers tight in Jack’s hair again and _fuck_ , that’s stinging pressure feels so _good_ \- Gabriel shudders and gasps as Jack continues to fuck him with his hands, inside and out, the blaze of the pleasure has turned into a roaring _fire_ , burning like a sun in his core, and Gabriel -

He practically _pleads_ :

“Jack, Jack, please, _please -_ I want you, I want to _feel you_ -”

“Hmm, all you want is my coffee, right?  And shower sex apparently,” Jack taunts him, removing his left hand to grab at one of the condoms buried in the sheets, as Gabriel squeezes down on his fingers and _fuck_ , Jack cannot _wait_ any longer - he wants he wants he wants -

He wants to _feel great_.

He wants to feel great with _Gabriel._

But above all else -

He wants Gabriel to feel _great_.

To feel all of his worth, his regality, his own strength - shared with another -

Inside and out.

“I want you, Jack.”

There’s no anger, no frustration -

No hesitation.

It is just Gabriel, being himself.

His words drip with ache and want and need - Gabriel wants to feel all that Jack has to offer, he wants to feel that power and confidence and strength inside him, he wants to feel the two of them together again - he’s burning for Jack, and only Jack can soothe this fire in his soul -

Jack smiles to himself as his left fingers find one of the condoms and he slowly eases his right fingers out of Gabriel, who groans and hisses.  Jack finally pulls himself up into a full kneeling position and assesses his own cock, hard and leaking lightly and _shit_ , Gabriel had been _fucking hot_ last time, but apparently nothing made Jack more excited than seeing Gabriel fucking Reyes fall to fucking _pieces_ in his bed.  

Taking...more care with opening the foil this time, Jack manages to rip it open on the first try and he rolls the condom onto himself with, gritting slightly at feeling pressure on his needy dick for the first time in awhile, before pushing his fatigues and underwear off the rest of the way and kicking them onto the floor.  He turns back to Gabriel, who bites at his lower lip at the sight of Jack ready -

Ready for him.

Ready for them.

Jack slides himself back in between Gabriel’s thighs and places his hands, still slick with lube, on Gabriel’s hips, thumbs pressing into the dips and he tilts that summer thunderstorm look to Gabriel, asking gently, “Is this position okay?”

“Yes, yes, _please_ , Jack - fuck, don’t make me keep asking, _pendejo_ -” Gabriel begins but his words are bitten off in a choke as Jack slowly - _miserably, deliberately, wonderfully slowly_ \- pushes his hard cock into Gabriel and Gabriel moans as the full pressure fills him, swells inside him and Jack’s right hand is back around his own cock, pleasure riding through him alongside the pressure and - _fuck_ -

Jack flinches slightly, forcing himself to go slow, _achingly slow_ , allowing Gabriel’s heated, squeezing muscles to relax and clench and ease themselves up around him - _fuck, though_ , it’s _blissfully difficult_ not to fuck in hard and fast, he wants nothing more than to send Gabriel flailing and bucking beneath him, wants to feel those thighs squeeze around him and lock him into place, but he has to be patient, the moment will happen soon enough - he pulls at Gabriel’s cock to give him some pleasure to guide him through the pressure -

Jack’s left hand grips down on Gabriel’s hips even as Gabriel attempts to rise, to press himself into Jack’s right hand, and then push himself back down on Jack’s cock - _fuck_ , he’s forgotten how it feels to be _this full_ , to be filled with another’s pressure and power, strong yet soft, gentle yet playful, and Jack’s face of miserably focused, blissed concentration looks _devastatingly good_ on him - he’s biting at his lower lip, his eyes darting from the point where they’re connect to his hand on Gabriel’s cock up to Gabriel’s face -

Jack looks at him and -

He begins to rock his hips.

It’s a slow, _miserably slow_ pace at first, but each thrust, as slow as it is, fills Gabriel again, and again, deeper and deeper, pressing against his swollen sweet spot, pushing back against his muscles, sliding in and in, and then out and out, Jack’s hand is still stroking him off only with less urgency, less pressure, as his partner’s focus shifts from Gabriel’s outside to Gabriel’s inside, and Gabriel is arcing slightly, his thighs squeeze against Jack and he hears a soft groan from Jack at the feeling of his hips pushing back into his legs -

Jack eases his right hand off of Gabriel’s dripping cock, admiring the slight white mess on the head and his fingers, and he gives a shuddering sigh as Gabriel clenches and loosens back on him, heat and pressure like the sun surrounding him, melting him down, making his _ache_ burn with a new, storming fury -

Jack shifts himself slightly, moving forward on his knees and positioning himself over Gabriel more, giving his thrusts more angle, more power and Gabriel shudders beneath him, moaning, “ _FUCK_ , fuck me, holy _shit_ , more, Jack - more, please, I want -”

And the storm anchored in Jack begins to snap loose, lightning crackling and roiling, his thrusting grows stronger, stronger, sweeter, sweeter - even as outside he grows all the more gentle, all more playful, moving his head down to kiss at Gabriel’s chest and -

There are hands grabbing into his hair.

Jack hisses and nips at Gabriel’s skin, his hips building a steady fierce roll that slowly gains power, gains confidence, steadily fucking into him strong and soft, sweet and bitter, gentle and firm, playful and rough and Gabriel shakes under each wave of pleasure burning into him from inside, from pressure as deep as the oceans, as wide as the skies - he’s shifting his hands down, down from Jack’s gold-blonde hair to his neck and shoulders, pulling him up, pulling him closer, he’s gasping, “More, Jack, _más, más_ \- come here, _aquí_ , please, Jack, _te quiero_ -”

Jack’s patience snaps.

He dives against Gabriel, relishing at finally being back in contact with his heated skin, smoke made corporeal, warmth and vibrancy and the brightness of the sun, Gabriel’s arms wrap around him, one hand tugging and stroking at Jack’s hair, the other holding his shoulders down, digging fingernails into his skin - Jack wraps one arm around the curve of Gabriel’s shoulder, pulling him closer, closer, his other hand slips down to Gabriel’s thigh, adjusting it against his hip and then -

His thrusts _rage_.

“ _FUCK_ ,” Gabriel shouts, arcing against Jack as the speed and intensity of Jack’s pressure grows _wild_ , fucking into him hard, harder, strong, stronger, each thrust is sweet and furious and fills Gabriel with sparks and stars and blossoms of pleasure rolling through him -

“ _Fucking hell,_ holy _shit_ , _JODER, joder,_ Jaaaa _ack_ ,” Gabriel groans, pressing his cheek to the side of Jack’s head, letting the soft fluff comfort him against the torrent, even as his fingers cling and claw to Jack’s back, even has his other fingers scratch against Jack’s scalp -

Jack kisses and nips at Gabriel’s neck, pushing himself further, further, further into the heat, sweltering and burning and melting, clenching and rolling around him as he fucks into Gabriel, each thrust somehow seems more powerful than the last, every swear word and name tumbling out of Gabriel’s mouth against his head has him feeling _great_ , holy _fuck_ , he would do this for the rest of his life if this is what Gabriel wanted -

“Gabriel, _god_ , yes,” he sighs and groans, it’s unusual for him to be the quieter one during sex, but it’s taking all of his concentration not to totally lose himself before Gabriel, he lets the stings of scratches and hair-pulling hold him down, ground him against the fury and _ache_ threatening to consume him, lets the soft-hard body beneath him pull him down, give him gravity as it shakes and trembles against each thrust -

Gabriel rocks back down, letting the pressure fill him, overwhelm him, letting himself fall - he feels the friction of Jack’s skin against his cock and the pleasure of Jack’s cock inside himself and he’s drowning, he’s falling to pieces, everything is coming undone and it feels -

 _Great_.

He would lose -

He would lose himself to Jack every day if it meant feeling like this -

If it meant feeling _great_ like this together.

Jack hikes his thigh higher up on his back, and Gabriel forces his other leg to do the same - he’s practically wrapped around Jack’s waist, clinging to him tightly as Jack shifts his right hand to Gabriel’s ass, gripping hard to -

“ _JACK_ ,” Gabriel howls as Jack’s thrust reaches deeper into him than ever before and the pleasure flashes and thunders into him, storming his nerves and dousing his senses, there are pins and sparks shifting inside him, burning with lightning shivers and snaps of ecstasy, and his vision is close to whiting out, but he _still feels Jack_ , holding him down and pressing into him -

He’s been fucked before -

But it’s never felt like this.

Jack winces slightly at Gabriel squeezing around him - his arm is squeezing him down, his thighs are squeezing his waist and hips, and his inside is shuddering and squeezing Jack’s cock, each thrust and subsequent roll of pressure driving pleasure up into Jack’s back, hard and hot, strong and sweet, burning with aching need -

Jack kisses Gabriel’s jawline, nuzzling into his neck and shoulder, gasping and moaning himself as he fucks into Gabriel and Gabriel fucks back down on him, _shit_ , everything is going to consume him, he’s pushing close to the brink now, Gabriel’s holding him to the mattress but -

Gabriel _first_.

Jack pushes in deep, deeper, strong, stronger and Gabriel’s practically crying against his head, sobbing and growling, “Jack, Jack, Jack - more, more, _más,_ Jack, _te quiero, quiero sentirte_ , _por favor_ , Jack, Jack -”

“I’m here, Gabriel,” Jack gasps back, shifting his hand from Gabriel’s ass and sliding it between them, wrapping around Gabriel’s slick, leaking cock, he’s close, he’s close -

Jack can feel it -

Gabriel lets the turmoil of Jack fucking into him push him down, lets the waves and blossoms of pleasure blur the edges of his mind into something ineloquent, something indiscernible, something unraveling at the seams and he thinks he can feel the piece of Jack inside him - both pieces of Jack inside him, Jack’s heated, powerful cock and Jack’s heated, powerful confidence - Gabriel thinks he can feel both of them move to the brink with him -

He feels Jack’s hand around his cock and Gabriel lets his hips move him, move them both, practically crying out at the touch of rough, slicked calloused fingers and palm -

He can’t hold on much longer -

Gabriel clenches down and rolls up into Jack’s hand, letting the pressure of Jack outside - his chest, his arms, the feeling of his soft gold-blonde hair, the press of his lips against Gabriel’s neck - and the pressure of Jack inside - his heated, powerful cock and his strong, sweet confidence, both gentle and firm, playful and rough all at once -

Gabriel feels Jack -

He feels all that Jack is, all that Jack offers, all the pleasure that Jack shares with him -

Gabriel feels Jack inside and out -

“ _Jack_ ,” is all he manages to gasp before he lets the feeling of Jack - the feeling of being great together - white him out in another furious, sparking wave of pleasure -

Strong and soft, sweet and bitter, gentle and firm, playful and rough -

All of Jack -

All at once.

Jack feels Gabriel’s cock twitch and spasm in his hand, and he pumps him through the act, feeling Gabriel’s white heat and tension spill onto his hand, onto his chest, onto Gabriel’s chest, and then he buries his face in the soft, blazing heat of Gabriel’s neck, murmuring hoarsely, “Stay with me, Gabriel -”

Gabriel’s fingers dig into him -

Jack feels them hold him -

And with another few, furious, raging thrusts into Gabriel’s tight, boiling heat -

Jack feels himself fall.

His hips continue to roll reflexively through the pulsating waves of ecstasy, even as they shudder and die down, but his mind is hazey, filled with dark, bittersweet smoke and the feeling of hands holding him and Gabriel tight around him, Gabriel’s low voice not saying anything coherent, just mumbling slow soft sounds that almost feel like music to Jack -

Strong and sweet and gentle and playful.

Gabriel’s fingers are teasing through his hair, tenderly stroking the fluff, as his other hand rubs soothing circles into Jack’s shoulders.  Jack shifts his head against Gabriel’s neck and shoulder, letting the feeling of Gabriel almost-humming something fill him, give him enough weight and gravity to begin pulling his mind back together slowly -

Gabriel lies there, feeling almost dead, feeling only Jack - the strength of his body, the softness of his hair, the gentleness of his breath on Gabriel’s skin, the playfulness of his lips pressing slow, languid kisses to his jawline.  He feels Jack’s lips drift upwards, his head shifting, kisses moving from jaw to part of his beard, to the corner of his lips -

Gabriel tilts his head just enough to meet the kiss and -

Together -

The kiss is strong and soft, sweet and bitter, gentle and firm, playful and rough.

It is everything Gabriel has wanted to feel.

Jack pulls away, his eyes looking over Gabriel’s face gently, how relaxed and serene he looks, and he removes his left arm from its position around Gabriel’s shoulder, using it to prop himself up slightly.  They stare at each other for a moment until Gabriel asks hoarsely:

“Is it too soon to say that I love you?”

There is no hesitation there.

“You said it last time, remember?” Jack smiles at him coyly, rising up and Gabriel lets go of him with the faintest touch of hesitancy.  Jack eases himself out of Gabriel, hissing as Gabriel groans softly.  He makes a small face at both his hand and cock, before sliding off the bed and standing.  He cleans himself up, tossing the condom in the trash by his desk and grabbing several tissues from the box as Gabriel mutters mainly to the air, “We both know that wasn’t how I meant it.”

“I’m still gonna tell everyone that you said it,” Jack hums to himself before returning to Gabriel, gently cleaning him.  Gabriel flinches as Jack handles his overstimulated cock, muttering with more...anger and frustration than he should:

“...You can’t say it to me yet, huh?”

Jack stops, giving him a strange cold and distant look, the fury of thunderstorms transformed into a blizzard.

Gabriel thinks he feels everything turn to ice inside him but then -

Jack sighs, rolling his head as he leans off and drops the tissues in the can.

“God, you can be fucking dense sometimes, Gabriel,” Jack says, before squaring himself back up -

And giving Gabriel a smile of quiet strength, of honey sweetness, of gentle rain, of light playfulness.

“I would not have asked you to give up your entire life to join me in some fucked up CIA-run experimental program if I wasn’t prepared to dedicate _everything_ to following you,” Jack smirks, causing Gabriel to frown and scowl, and turn his eyes away in -

He’s not in denial but -

The words make him feel _great_.

Jack laughs and leans against him, snuggling down onto Gabriel’s chest, where he can _feel_ Gabriel’s heart beat against his ear.  Gabriel runs his fingers through Jack’s hair once again, and Jack sighs - Gabriel feels Jack’s words breathe against his skin:

“...I love you.  You still said it first.”

The words do something _fierce_ to his heart.

“Does that make me the winner or the loser?” Gabriel chuckles and Jack grins, “I think that makes us both losers.  Saying we love each other on our first date.  We’re assholes.”

“ _Total pendejos_ ,” Gabriel adds unhelpfully.  Both of them know, though, that Jack’s been in love for over ten months and Gabriel -

Gabriel’s been 120% fucked for nearly two years.

Jack’s eyes flutter shut -

“Oh no you fucking don’t, _cabrón_ ,” Gabriel snaps at him forcing both of them to sit upright and Jack jerks back awake from his sleepy, stuffy haze as Gabriel moves him out of the way, pulling himself off the bed.  Jack watches with mild confusion as Gabriel grabs clothes off the floor, throwing Jack’s fatigues and underwear at him while grabbing his own sweatpants and boxers.  Gabriel steps back into his clothes as Jack grumbles, “...Really?”

“I had to spend two hours with your naked ass pinning me to the floor last time,” Gabriel growls, turning back around to point an accusatory finger at Jack before he stomps over to the door, slides it open, and retrieves Jack’s sock.  Jack snorts at his thoroughness, but rather than give it back to him, Gabriel just chucks the door sock on the floor.

“...Dude,” Jack says unappreciatively as Gabriel returns to the bed, rolling his shoulders apathetically, “You’re the one who chose to take off your sock.”

“Uh, to shield you from the possibility of tremendous embarrassment,” Jack jokes as he pokes his legs back into the boxer briefs and then the fatigues.  Gabriel just rolls his eyes as he settles back on the pillow, pulling some of the sheets over him.  A second later, Jack follows him down, settling back on Gabriel’s bare chest, welcoming the warm lull that pulls him in, the gentle rhythm of the beat of his heart.

Gabriel doesn’t fall asleep this time.

He just lies there, listening to Jack’s soft snoring, running his hands through his hair, relishing in the strong warmth of his bare chest against Gabriel’s, letting the gentle green-tinted light give the room a sweet, playful glow.

Gabriel just lies there -

Feeling Jack.

Feeling great.

 

\---------

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I don't really know what to say here, at this point. It has been a very long week. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has provided me with support and praise. Your words mean everything to me.
> 
> Thank you again to everyone who gave me much needed-advice and thoughtful comments. I will be carrying your words forward with me as I continue to write.
> 
> Thank you all again. A todos, muchas gracias.


End file.
